Patrice Boyer Claeys graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Manchester, U.K., and completed a Certificate in Poetry from the University of Chicago. Her first collection, Lovely Daughter of the Shattering, was published in 2019, followed by The Machinery of Grace (2020), Honey from the Sun (with Gail Goepfert, 2020) and This Hard Business of Living (also with Goepfert, 2021). Her work appears in The Night Heron Barks, Adirondack Review, SWWIM, *82 Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Zone 3, Inflectionist Review, Literary Mama and Aeolian Harp 5, among others. She was nominated for both Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. Patrice lives in Chicago with her husband and has two grown daughters. Find her at www.patriceboyerclaeys.com.
Kiwi
Faux fur—
homely as a house.
It’s that odd
the paradox
of inside and outside.
Your belly grew round with dew
created a glossary of seeds
like rings of colored glass.
Green Sunshine,
the god who loves you
confidently wielded the crayon.
If the meek deserve
a form of comfort,
you would know.
Cento Sources: Suzanne Buffam, Marianne Moore, Cedar Sigo, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Pattiann Rogers, Pablo Neruda, Catherine Bowman, Leonore Hildebrandt, Don Kubicki, Carl Dennis, Louise Gluck, Evan Kennedy, Denise Levertov, Marvin Bell
From Honey from the Sun, Patrice Boyer Claeys and Gail Goepfert, Blurb.com, 2020.
First published in The Night Heron Barks, Fall 2020.